Robert Kimmel Smith has written many books for young readers, and they have much in common with The War with Grandpa. The main character of Bobby Baseball is 10 years old—the same age as Peter. Bobby narrates his story like Peter does. Both protagonists love to write, but Bobby also adores baseball. He can’t stop thinking about it. When he grows up, he wants to be an elite baseball player. Put in conversation with Bobby Baseball, another theme that appears in The War with Grandpa is the theme of preoccupation. Smith’s characters need something to consume them, whether it’s a sport or a war. Baseball takes over Bobby’s mind, and war captures most of Peter’s attention. The fixations lead to conflict. Bobby fights with his dad, and Peter fights with Grandpa. The boys are stubborn, and they must change to avoid further upset.

Chocolate Fever doesn’t feature a first-person narrator, but it contains a hyper-focused young person. Henry Green can’t get enough chocolate—he puts it on everything, and it puts him in a precarious situation. As with Bobby Baseball and The War with Grandpa, single-mindedness can lead to trouble. While Bobby and Peter have conflicts with their parents, Henry doesn’t fight with his mom and dad—they let him consume dangerous quantities of chocolate.